Lynn Hatton: Board member, Capistrano Unified School District

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Editor's note: Commentary's Spark of Innovation feature periodically spotlights local engineers and scientists to encourage Orange County students to see career possibilities for themselves in science, technology, medicine and engineering. We also offer a new feature: Spark a Passion for Science, highlighting teachers, administrators, parents, students and organizations focused on improving STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – education in Orange County schools. Bill Blanning and Science@OC coordinate this feature.

Lynn Hatton has been instrumental in advocating for STEM curriculum and STEM-centered schools in Capistrano Unified.

What efforts are you and your fellow board members making to emphasize STEM programs? The most exciting project I am personally championing is the creation of a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) community magnet school for fall 2014. Among many others, we have already received promises of partnership from Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine's School of Engineering, Science OC and The Ocean Institute. We will seek partnerships with the city and local businesses as well.

One of the partnerships we created for the long term last year is with National Parks and Recreation where we have leveraged technology to implement virtual science field trips. The students get to “attend” these field trips, participate in discourse with fellow students, then have guided instruction with the classroom teacher with a follow-up utilizing experiments and hypotheses. This process will create environments for critical thinking that will allow for their future success and love of learning.

What do you see as the biggest single challenge in promoting and enhancing science and math programs? The commitment to this core subject area at the highest levels of government; mathematics and English language arts always comes first, as does the funding. The biggest challenge in math is instruction focused around the application and relevance rather than rote memorization.

Can you recommend a solution? A solution to ensuring a focus on STEM is to align our national priorities for the long-term benefit of our country. Under Common Core, we are poised to make huge strides in standards that are deep and relevant but we must provide the funding for training our professionals to best implement the standards and this type of learning.

What would be the most successful outcome of your efforts? At CUSD, we must enhance our learning environments via STEM and provide focused and deep professional learning for the teacher so that each classroom is a place where rich discussion and investigation happens on a daily basis and our students become critical thinkers, collaborators, strong communicators and continuous innovators.

Who or what “sparked your passion for science”? I have become passionate about science because I believe it is a vehicle to integrate all of the essentials for deep learning in a fun and engaging way.

What is your current profession? I started my career at the Princeton Review as an SAT instructor and worked my way up to running one of the most successful franchises in the country. Since that time, I have created my own education companies. My current company, InnovateED, provides support to districts and their schools to ensure a successful implementation of a college and career-ready academic program.

Where did you go to college? I went to UC Irvine and graduated with a degree in Social Ecology, specializing in Criminal Justice. I originally thought I would be a detective but loved my work at the Princeton Review so much that I decided to make it a career.

Are you involved in the arts in any way? I believe that creativity and innovation play an essential role in success. We are including the arts in our new school design, which could be playing an instrument or it could be designing a computer program. We need to broaden our own definitions of the arts via the concept of creativity and innovation and how that may look in our schools to engage and develop our students.

What would you tell a student who may think a STEM career is beyond his or her reach? I would talk to the student about taking control of their learning. If a student has a personalized learning plan with support accordingly, they are much more likely to achieve success. I would share the background data on STEM pathways and careers and how to access their counselors and other online resources to research and create an implementable and realistic plan. I would then give them my contact information to help them in any way I can. With confidence and background knowledge, nothing is beyond a kid's reach!

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